Inevitable vs Rifts
Compare Inevitable and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Inevitable | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Deadly, Fiction-First, Grimdark, Lore-Heavy, Mission-Based, Narrative, Rules-Light | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | Build a dice pool of d6s from Reputations, equipment, and risk-taking. Roll and take the highest: 1–3 fails with a Consequence, 4–5 succeeds but with a Consequence and earns a Showdown Token, 6 succeeds cleanly. In climactic Showdowns, one character faces the Threat alone: roll d6 plus bonuses from negotiated Costs against a target equal to Threat minus accumulated Showdown Tokens. | Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | SoulMuppet Publishing | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2024 | 2005 |
| Best For | Groups who want a narrative, play-to-lose fantasy RPG where doomed cowboy knights sacrifice everything to defy prophecy in a richly detailed kingdom on the brink of destruction. | Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses. |
| Highlights | Play-to-lose structure makes failure and sacrifice mechanically meaningful rather than punishing. Six classes (Errant, Mystic, Godsman, Taleweaver, Roamer, Shadowjack) each with unique abilities and Reputation suggestions. Nested quest structure (World Quests, Stepwise Quests, Doom Quests, and the Fall Quest) creates escalating campaign arcs. Showdown mechanic focuses climactic confrontations on a single character negotiating personal Costs against the Threat. | Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds. |
| Considerations | Tightly bound to the Kingdom of Myth setting with no toolkit for other campaigns. Play-to-lose premise requires buy-in from all players. GM must manage interconnected Doom timelines and escalating Threat levels across multiple quest types. No tactical combat system: conflicts resolve through the same Challenge and Showdown mechanics as everything else. | Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system. |